How Will Dion Waiters Bounce Back?

When you hear the name Dion Waiters, you may not think about him as an NBA star. You may just think about him as an average NBA player. This type of thinking is what fuels him to be better. Waiters has been sidelined for nearly a whole year after getting surgery on his ankle in January. He was told that the surgery would keep him out of basketball for 8-10 months. After waiting almost a year, he is almost ready to make his return with the Miami Heat. Waiters recently said “I’m better than a lot of these guys in the motherf***ing league”.

This just shows how confident he is in himself to make a very positive impact on the court. Over the course of his short NBA career, Waiters has moved around a bit. In the 2012 NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Dion Waiters with the 4th overall pick out of Syracuse. He played 2 full seasons with Cleveland and part of a 3rd season but was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 3 team trade that also involved the New York Knicks.

The Cleveland Cavaliers received J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert as well as a first round draft pick. The Knicks received Lou Amundson, Alex Kirk, and Lance Thomas as well as a second round draft pick. The Thunder got Dion Waiters. Waiters played the rest of this season and then 1 more full season with the Thunder. In his final season with the Thunder he had the worst season of his career. Only averaging 9.8 Points. Dion Waiters was offered a small contract with the Miami Heat and took advantage of it. In the 2016-2017 season with the Miami Heat he had averaged 15.8 Points and 4.3 Assists. He was also making clutch shots to help his team win. He was then offered a 4 year, 52 million dollar contract to remain with the Heat before his season ending injury last season. Many believed that Waiters was about to really break out and become a star until his injury, and it seems like he is still confident that he can come out and dominate the league in the future. Waiters was just cleared for full contact practice and is now listed as “day to day”. The Miami Heat are very excited to have him back and they hope he can make as much of an impact as he did for them in the past. Will he live up to the hype once he returns?